LETTERS: "Floridians will stay up until 1 a.m. to watch the ball drop in Times Square. Enjoy."

Tuesday

Apr 17, 2018 at 2:01 AMApr 17, 2018 at 6:52 AM

Florida shouldn't tangle with time

Sen. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, sponsored legislation to put Florida (unilaterally) on permanent daylight savings time. Apparently he felt that the twice-a-year change in time was too burdensome, and the extra hour of darkness in the morning was eclipsed by the benefits of sunlight later in the day. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio says he’ll work to obtain permission from Congress to make this change.

If Florida goes out of sync with the rest of the Eastern time zone, consider what the first Sunday in November has in store for us.

Floridians will have a four-hour time difference with the West Coast, two hours with the Midwest, one hour with New York. That means extra jet lag. On the other hand, traveling to Europe is easier by an hour. Even crossing the Florida-Georgia line means adjusting clocks; the rigors of jet lag can soon be conveniently experienced without having to board an airplane.

People watching NFL games can now go to bed after the national anthem rather than trying to stay awake until halftime, since many of the games will be starting around 9:30 p.m. or 10 p.m. Conversely, Sunday afternoon games will begin at 2 p.m., unless it’s one of the Florida teams. Then, still 1 p.m.? How will the networks adjust (or not ) to that?

For Floridians, the stock market will open at 10:30 a.m. and close at 5 p.m. They’d better stay in sync with their broker. On the other hand, we will be in the same time zone as that economic powerhouse, Trinidad and Tobago.

On New Year's Eve, Floridians will stay up until 1 a.m. to watch the ball drop in Times Square. Enjoy.

When Florida is on DST with the rest of the country (world), we won’t have to make these adjustments. But that’s only part of the year.

This bill sailed through the Legislature like a cannonball through whipped cream. But unless people believe that being out of sync with a large part of our country is a good idea, this bill should never have seen the light of day (pun intended).

James Ulsamer

Palm Coast

Political tangle

Would you be shocked if you heard the FBI raided the home and office of Hillary Clinton’s private attorney and took all computers, phones and electronics and seized all attorney-client documents not already shredded? Of course, that didn’t happen, and Clinton’s attorneys were granted immunity. Then FBI Director James Comey accused Clinton of extreme carelessness rather than gross negligence in her handling of classified material on her personal server, but did not recommend any charges in this matter/investigation.

While the Clinton case is gathering dust, Robert Mueller’s Russia collusion case is gathering momentum.

After Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe, he and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein recommended firing Comey for his handling of the Clinton emails. Comey leaked White House memos to prompt a special counsel, and Rosenstein quickly appointed Comey mentor Mueller as special counsel and infused his investigation with almost unlimited power, taxpayer dollars and broad parameters.

Despite the lengthy investigation, no credible evidence of any Russian collusion with the Trump campaign has yet been found. The FBI did raid the home, office and hotel room of President Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen and seized all his computers, phones, electronics and all privileged attorney-client documents in a stunning move by federal prosecutors. The DOJ and FBI crossed a moral and ethical line that is more about politics than Russian collusion. Is there a two tier justice system in the federal government that exonerates Clinton at all costs and destroys President Trump, no matter the cost?